verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
confuse/cloud/muddy the issue (= make an issue more difficult to understand or deal with than it needs to be )
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You must not let your feelings cloud the issue.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
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Some are also unaware or confused about where to obtain birth control and what this involves.
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Numbers Most business writers get confused about when to spell out numbers and when to use numerals.
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Two of the stories in the new book also are about confused middle-aged men.
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The trick is not to get confused about which is which.
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Understand your priorities People are often confused about where to put the limited sums they can save.
more
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The more you try to decipher the more confusing it becomes.
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But for newcomers, it also has never been more confusing to get started.
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He could get no real grip on the situation, and the more he pondered, the more confused his thinking became.
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All of which left me even more confused .
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The keepers were more confused than the eagle was.
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He said voters also may pay the price of an early primary with a more confusing ballot in November.
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I was more confused than thrilled.
often
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Female speaker Carers are often confused because they don't know which of the many agencies to go to.
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Freyja Freyja and Frigg are often confused and sometimes indistinguishable, but Freyja possesses a number of important individual traits.
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Bullies are often confused by people who don't fight back but who continue to do what is right.
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Gentiles are often confused about proper behavior, gifts, and attire.
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Sandy Shores Prawns and shrimps are often confused .
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As a result, the advice that physicians and the media offer people based on what these experts say is often confusing .
so
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He thought back and ... and it was all so confused and seemed so long ago.
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Getting a phone call at the Writers' Club had so confused me that I became half deaf.
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Yet he had looked at her today - Lord, she was so confused .
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But as for me, I have not been so confused since high school geometry.
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How could he be so confused ?
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But it can be so confusing for women.
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Was she a silly adolescent girl to be so confused and seduced by a handsome face? a beautiful body?
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Matson writes of her going to a Christmas party, where the conversations seem so confusing .
sometimes
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This might hamstring the government and its operation was sometimes confusing to foreign observers.
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The clubs' history, as presented, is dizzying, sometimes confusing .
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Some one else who is sometimes confused perhaps likes a trip to the pub at lunch-time.
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Needless to say, it sometimes confuses the diagnosis.
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It is therefore unsurprising that such seizures are sometimes confused with panic attacks.
too
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We hope you don't find this too confusing .
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There, but too confused for events to register in my memory.
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He was still too confused for any sort of confrontation with the old man.
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Corporate intranets, immensely popular in the business world, may prove too confusing to use and too expensive to maintain.
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It was all too quick, too confusing .
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The worst thing we as consumers can do is to give up or not bother because it's all too confusing .
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You were too confused by how the city and the people looked to you.
very
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To be sure, this is not the only criterion: the voices of other Christians may be very confused .
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Bumper sticker thinking only adds to what is already a very confusing time for organizations and the people within them.
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Inconsistencies can be very confusing for young children and conflicting attitudes over toilet training and discipline can lead to frustration and unhappiness.
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Like a lot of people around here say, he has these very confused white people as parents.
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Different definitions of charity for different purposes, for example, charity, tax, rating, would be very confusing .
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What seem the simplest phrases in journalese shorthand can be very confusing .
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Angie is a very confused lady at the moment, according to Freya Copeland, who plays Emmerdale's popular police sergeant.
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I am now very confused about the whole thing.
■ NOUN
issue
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It was the enlightened afrancesados who were to confuse political issues by their peculiar relation to liberalism.
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This attempt to confuse the issue went unanswered, and Santa Anna continued his preparations to advance on the capital.
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The politicians, on the lookout for arguments to extend their authoritarianism, jumped at this opportunity to confuse the issue .
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The Catholic arguments confuse the issue , but this time, for all the wrong reasons, the Pope is infallible.
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Perceptions, such as hers, distort the truth and confuse the issue .
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We must be careful not to confuse two issues here.
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To take them back west would he to confuse some issue that she did not want confused.
people
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Or was he merely seeking to confuse people in the West who have been calling for military intervention?
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The feuding between ministers during the revivals had robbed them of some prestige and had confused people who were looking for stability.
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You can confuse people even more thoroughly with windows.
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Like a lot of people around here say, he has these very confused white people as parents.
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Callie had seemed confused by outside people sometimes understanding her and sometimes not.
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But it's not a name that will directly confuse people .
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This is confusing to people who think Hebrew and Yiddish are the same.
reader
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Do not confuse your reader with technical terms or jargon.
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Worse, it confuses your readers and makes a potentially interesting message boring.
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While this may be historically correct, the change of notation may be confusing to some readers .
■ VERB
become
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She became very upset and confused , clearly feeling that Balbinder's failure was her fault.
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The electrons become confused , often losing track of the partner they brought to the dance.
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My mind, once sound as a bell, became muddled and confused .
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But, the reader will become confused and distracted by passives, so avoid them.
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Victoria has lost her clarity and her fish have become confused .
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Male moths become confused by the signals and are unable to find mates.
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Alfred was like us, cool and real, but as the police moved in on him things became a bit confused .
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This is where the present bounty hunter story has become confused .
feel
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Very often arrears mounted just when borrowers were least able to cope with the situation; they felt vulnerable and confused .
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He felt confused , suspicious, betrayed.
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But it has left me feeling rather - confused .
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I had a feeling our house confused him.
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He felt dazed and confused because he could not decide what Jeopardy had meant by his remark.
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If Bruno felt confused or anxious, he could always simply smile and lie there.
get
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Knowing him, he'd keep them shut even if he was awake, just to get me confused .
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I get confused and climb the wrong staircase.
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Sometimes I get confused between work and socialising, especially when we spend our off-duty time discussing what we did on duty.
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Numbers Most business writers get confused about when to spell out numbers and when to use numerals.
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It's hardly surprising then, that we get confused by the signals he gives out - now more than ever.
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We began sorting them into different area sizes as we were getting confused with those we had and didn't have.
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Switzer got confused or tongue-tied again Thursday.
look
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Daak had looked confused: he marched straight to Ace, but seemed not to know what to do next.
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If it sits there and looks confused for several seconds, be patient.
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Jenna looked different, confused , more alive than usual.
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She stops, then, looking confused .
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Moira looked at her, confused .
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I looked at him, confused .
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He looked confused and swallowed repeatedly.
seem
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It seems you confuse Third World countries.
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There is a perfectly logical reason why it seems so pointless and confusing .
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Struan seems to confuse these two uses.
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People seem confused , tensions run high, and constant crisis is a fact of organizational life.
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Much of the technical literature on the subject seems to confuse the two sets of questions distinguished in this section.
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They may seem confused , as if they are in their own world.
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More importantly, Griffin seems either to be confused or just wrong about consciousness.
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Callie had seemed confused by outside people sometimes understanding her and sometimes not.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
color me surprised/confused/embarrassed etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Don't show him the other way of doing it - it'll only confuse him.
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His sudden change in mood completely confused her.
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I always confuse Anthea with her sister - they're so alike.
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I hope my explanation didn't confuse everybody.
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I think my explanation only confused matters further.
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The instructions just confused me even more.
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The Press Secretary gave a completely different version of events, which greatly confused the situation.
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The twins liked to confuse their teachers by switching seats.
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Try not to confuse "your" and "you're".
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You don't write a resume to get a job; you write it to get an interview - don't get the two things confused.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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His policies, especially in the first two years of his presidency, often have been confusing and contradictory.
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It is only by confusing them that Atkins can hold that mathematics and physical reality are identical.
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It would be difficult to confuse this with any other species.
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She was confusing him with her old dreams.
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This nomenclature tends to confuse the terminology.
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We must be careful not to confuse two issues here.